The Invisible Mentor

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You may be thinking what an odd question, “Do you know you,” but please humor me. On  Saturday while waiting for my student at the  Metropolitan Toronto Reference Library, I bumped into a librarian whom I hadn’t seen in months. She wanted to know what I’d been doing because she hadn’t seen me. For those who may not know, I love libraries and bookstores. I told her that I’d been very busy with work and that I had also been taking stock of my life to see where I was at, and where I wanted to go. I was shocked when she told me that she had never evaluated her life that way. This is something that I do regularly, have check-ins with myself. What about you?

This made me wonder if most people go through life without taking the time to see if they are on track. But if they have no life plan then any destination would do. So, I have a few questions for you:

1. Are you living your passion?
2. Are you doing work that feeds your soul? If not why not?
3. Are you making a difference in anybody’s world, especially yours?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the right side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Thank you for being you, and thank you for reading my blog. In life we take too many things for granted, and get caught up in the busyness of our lives. I am trying to be more intentional about saying thanks, and letting others know that I care about them. Is there someone who you have been thinking of giving a call to? Why not take a few minutes and make the call now.

For my undergraduate degree, I attended the University of Calgary, and they had an alumni event this evening in Toronto at the National Club. The guest speaker was Johann Olav Koss, President of Right to Play a non-profit organization that uses “use sport and play programs to improve health, develop life skills, and foster peace among children and communities.”

If you cannot view the YouTube video of I Believe in You click here

It was an inspirational and very uplifting evening. Johann shared an experience he had at 11 years old when he told his grandmother that he was going to become a doctor like his parents and win medals for speed skating. His grandmother told him that he could accomplish anything that he wanted, and that if he intended to do so many things he should eat his food. He wasn’t particularly good in school, though he was good in science, and he wasn’t good at speed skating. Despite that, he accomplished those goals because someone important to him believed in him. He became a doctor, and he has won five Olympic medals in speed skating. Do you support the important people in your life? Imagine what a difference it would make in your world if someone believed in you. I BELIEVE IN YOU, so go climb your Mt. Everest because I know that you can do it.

If you cannot view the YouTube video of I Believe in You (Lion King) click here

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

YouTube videos via Apture

Go as far as you can see, and you’ll be able to see further, is the essence of a quote that was mentioned in an interview I recently conducted. How profound, and a great rule to live by. Too often we get overwhelmed by a project, or a task because we simply cannot see the big picture. Or we cannot see what the end looks like. Instead of being paralyzed by fear, and not getting started, how about we do as much as we can envision, and when we get to the end of that point, we take another look and see how far we can now see.

By doing that, in no time we’ll come to the end point of the task and the project. It’s great to be able to see the end point, but if we cannot, there is no reason for us to stress ourselves out.

Which task or project is waiting for you to take it as far as you can see?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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I attended a Career Studio hosted by the Canadian Women In Communications where I gleaned some important insights that I’d like to share with you. Senior level women in the communications industry shared their experiences, and the information presented is not isolated to that  industry.

There were four panelists: Fariba Anderson (VP Lottery IT, Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation), Heather Gordon (VP, Finance, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research), Joan Jenkinson (Director of Independent Productions/Executive Producer for S-VOX), Julie Osborne (Deputy Publisher, Maclean’s Magazine) and moderator Stephanie MacKendrick (President, Canadian Women in Communications).

While the women were sharing, my mind was going a mile a minute processing what they were saying while still paying attention. Here are the key takeaways from the event.

• Take risks and stretch yourself
• Surround yourself with people who can make things happen
• If you are in a job you hate, or perceive to be a dead end, instead of just focusing on that job, look around you within the organization to see what’s going on on other parts, and talk to co-workers to identify if there is a better spot in the company for you
• Plan your career but be open to opportunities
• Create opportunities for yourself
• Know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses and find people whose skills complement yours
• Learn while doing and grow into the role
• It’s not what you do, it’s who you do it with
• Be prepared to fail, to success
• Speak up and be heard

These highly accomplished women had  formal or informal mentors, as well as trusted advisers. The point is that they didn’t go it alone and neither should you. One panelist described what she called “mentors in moments,” the people who help you to see your way more clearly.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo Credit: Google via Apture

When was the last time you took a break simply to have some “quiet time” and get in touch with the deeper you? Today’s post is very simple, just follow the instructions below:

1. Close you eyes
2. Take a few deep breaths, breathing deep into your lungs by flexing your diaphragm (you know
   that you are breathing deeply when your stomach pushes out when you are inhaling)
3. With your eyes still closed, look upwards at the point between your eyebrows
4. When you feel a slight pressure, start counting down slowly from ten to one. When you reach
   one, you are now in the alpha state

This process is a time out to calm you down, and take you in to the Alpha Brianwave State. If you’re feeling anxious, angry fearful, worried or any of those negative emotions then it’s time for some “quiet time.” Going into Alpha is also good when you have to study or take an exam.

This is a good technique to teach  to your children. Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

To get the information you need requires asking the right questions, but how do you know what the right questions are? Surprisingly, this post was inspired by Chris Brogan‘s blog post “Rethink Your Web Presence.” The post is about whether or not your website is achieving your goals for it, and he asks six questions from the perspective of the user.

Who do you want me to be?

How will I know that I belong?

What do you want to show/tell me?

What do you want me to do?

How will we keep this relationship going?

How shall I talk of you to my friends?

This post got me thinking about a few things:  how we get the wrong answers because we didn’t ask the right questions,  how we didn’t achieve our objectives because we didn’t meet the needs of our users. For internal and external clients, how can you give them what they need? I think the answer is to listen actively to what the client is saying, and ask lots of questions to grasp what’s being said. It is my experience that many times what clients say they need is not what they really need, and the supplier has to ask many questions to identify the true need. As an information professional with over 15 years experience, I have seen this time and time again.

One trick I use, which I learned in computer science years ago, is to always reinterpret to the clients what you heard them say. This works all the time. And with the prevalence of email, after the meeting send an email outlining what you heard. If you are mistaken, the client will let you know.

Sometimes you’ll not know what the right questions are, but if you are prepared for the meetings and listen hard, more than likely you’ll figure it out. Another technique which is used by many consultants, is to ask, “If we were sitting here three years from today, what would have had to happen for you to be satisfied?” And you would adjust the time to shortly after the project ended.

And if you have a website or a blog, it would be great to answer Chris’ six questions, I intend to. And while you are in the doing mood, read Penelope Trunk‘s post, Five tips for asking better questions. Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

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Note: The section written in red font was written later.

Have you had your laugh for today? May 2nd was World Laughter Day, when was the last time you had a good laugh, the one that comes from the bottom of your belly? I have always heard that laughter is good for the soul and whoever coined that phrase was on to something.

World Laughter Day celebrated on the first Sunday of May,

“was created in 1998 by Dr. Madan Kataria, founder of the worldwide Laughter Yoga movement. The celebration of World Laughter Day is a positive manifestation for world peace and is intended to build up a global consciousness of brotherhood and friendship through laughter. Its popularity has grown exponentially with that of the Laughter Yoga movement (now counting over 6000 Laughter Clubs worldwide on all 5 continents)” according to Wikipedia.

If you cannot view the video click here.

A few years ago I participated in Laughter Yoga and the classes were a lot more fun when we had teenagers in the group. They knew how to really get into laughing for no reason, and the adults would laugh because they were having so much fun. After a good bout of laughter, I was always in a very good mood. We were encouraged to be intentional about laughing every day. At first you feel silly and forced, but shortly after you really get into it. Have you ever attended Laughter Yoga classes?

An article in the Halifax Herald on January 20, 2002, titled “The best medicine: We laugh because it’s good for us; mirth is a kind of social glue,” reported that “Young children are estimated to laugh over 300 times a day – a reason why they seem to have more obvious fun than adults who average 20 times daily… On average, men and women produced the same number of laughs, but men tended to laugh a “bit longer” than women.” Get out and get laughing and Happy World Laughter Day to you.

Let’s keep the laughter flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

Photo credit: Bing via Apture

Today I’m going to expand on Napoleon Hill‘s Invisible Counselors and my Invisible Mentors technique, but before I do that, I’d like to say that a few weeks ago I attended a networking event where Anna Rossetti, CEO, CPI Card Group was the guest speaker. She told the audience that today, having one mentor is not enough, we need a team of mentors to help us get to where we need to go. I smiled when she said that because I have been building my Board of Mentors, and I plan to Build a Board of Invisible Mentors as well.

We’ve talked in detail about how to choose Invisible Mentors, so today I’d like to deal with the next logical step. Please also read “What Did Napoleon Hill Omit? Invisible Counselors vs. Invisible Mentors” to understand how Napoleon Hill used his Council of Invisible Counselors. This process involves a lot of research so let the Public Library, Google and Yahoo be your friends.

For each of your five invisible mentors find all the information that you can on them:

• Identify and secure biographies and autobiographies on your invisible mentors
• Conduct a video search to identify videos by or about them
• Conduct research to identify speeches and presentations given by and about your invisible mentors
• Read all the information that you have collected
• Identify themes that emerge
• Who were their mentors
• Who gave them their big break
• What are their philosophies
• In what way are they similar and dissimilar to you
• What did you discover that was very surprising to you
• What did you discover that wasn’t surprising to you
• How do they solve challenges
• How do they generate ideas
• For each invisible mentor, identify 10 great ideas from the information that you read about them
• Combine the ideas you extracted, among invisible mentors and identify new ideas
• How can you apply the new information to your work and life
• When you feel as if you know your invisible mentors, refer to “What Did Napoleon Hill Omit? Invisible Counselors vs. Invisible Mentors” and try to follow the Invisible Counselor Technique that Napoleon Hill perfected
• Now that you have read the information, processed and played with it, map out a strategy to get to where you need to go
• Implement the strategy and fine tune as necessary

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For an electronic copy of Think and Grow Rich, please click here.

Resources to Have in Your Library

Books of Famous Speeches
Books about people who have changed the world
Books about the great inventors of our time

Resources to Refer to

Famous People Their Lives
Biography.com
Biography Online
Famous Speeches

This post is an update to my post on “What Did Napoleon Hill Omit? Invisible Counselors vs. Invisible Mentors.” I heard from several people who read the post and really enjoyed it, but a burning question they had was if my idea for Invisible Mentors was inspired by Napoleon Hill‘s Invisible Counselors. No I wasn’t inspired by Napoleon Hill’s concept. Yes, I read Think and Grow Rich years ago and it was a painful experience for mean. At the time, I wondered if something was wrong with me because so many successful people had been impacted by the book, which did nothing for me.

So where did the inspiration for the Invisible Mentor come from?

In 2007, I wrote my first book Tales of People Who Get It, and at the time I was trying to figure out an apt description for it. One day while walking in High Park, “Tales of People Who Get It is your Board of Invisible Mentors,” popped into my consciousness. The book consists of the interview responses of 34 highly successful people, and most of them are ordinary people like you and me, so you get the sense that you can do what they have done. The significant thing for me is that when I often have a challenge, I remember parts of interviews that I have conducted. I am influenced and sometimes changed by these interviews and I hope that you are too. That’s why I conduct the interviews so that we may learn from the experiences of others.

It took me over 18 months before I did anything with the Invisible Mentor  idea because I mentioned it to a friend and she thought the idea was ahead of its time and I should water it down and take out the word invisible. (Little did we know that a similar idea existed). In other words, she rained on my parade. I know better and should never have listened to her, but nothing is ever done before its time. The lesson to you and also to me is to be careful who you listen to.

Now that it’s a situation of what is old is new again, I realize that all of us are a lot smarter that we give ourselves credit for. I believe in the concept of the Invisible Mentor, and knowing that Napoleon Hill successfully used Invisible Mentors, disguised as Counselors, I know that I am on the right track? If Invisible Mentors were good enough, and even critical to Hill’s success, they should be good enough for us. Have you taken the time to choose your five Invisible Mentors? What are you trying to accomplish? Who has already walked the path that you are now on? If you need assistance in choosing your Invisible Mentors, the Invisible Mentor Toolkit could be your answer.

And, what are you doing to make your mind a fertile ground for great ideas? Take a chance, risk it, because you could produce a seminal piece of work such as Think and Grow Rich. The time is now to act on your great idea. I thought this post important enough to preempt the the scheduled posts.

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For an electronic copy of Think and Grow Rich, please click here.

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All book links are affiliate links.

The Internet has been abuzz over the past few weeks with Napoleon Hill‘s Invisible Counselors, but is this technique different from Invisible Mentors? Are people going to turn The Invisible Counselor Technique into a fad like “The Secret” movie where viewers thought they could visualize a goal and have it manifest without taking action, instead of taking the time to do things the correct way. Is there really an easy way out?

This post is my reaction to the concept of Invisible Counselors. Please refer to Vishen Lakhiani’s original post “Napoleon Hill’s Weird “Invisible Counselor Technique” and Why it Inspired (and Scared) So Many People.” It’s a great post and the video is a great complement to the written information in the post. See the video below. What critical component did Napoleon Hill omit in his technique?

If you cannot view the video click here. I got a copy of Think and Grow Rich because I wanted to go to the source to present the facts to you, and I wanted to better understand Invisible Counselors. Many people have said that Think and Grown Rich was one of the books that had a profound impact on their life. I wasn’t one of those people, and I didn’t enjoy the book when I first read it. However, I thought that Earl Nightingale did a nice summary of the book. I am at the point where I am ready to re-read Think and Grow Rich and see if my reaction is different seven years later.

The Invisible Counselor is discussed at length in Chapter 14, “The Sixth Sense: the Door to the Temple of Wisdom.” I must preface my comments by saying that I do believe in the power of the subconscious mind and the sixth sense. Here is what the book says about Invisible Counselors.

“While I was passing through the age of “hero worship” I found myself trying to imitate those whom I most admired… I followed the habit of reshaping my own character by trying to imitate the nine men whose lives and life works had been most impressive to me. These nine men were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Paine, Thomas Edison, Charles Darwin, Abraham Lincoln, Luther Burbank, Napoleon Bonaparte, Henry Ford and Andrew Carnegie. Every night, over a long period of years, I held an imaginary council meeting with this group whom I called my “Invisible Counselors.” [I added in the last name of Hill's nine Invisible Counselors]

The procedure was this. Just before going to sleep at night, I would shut my eyes and see, in my imagination, this group of men seated with me around my council table. Here I had not only an opportunity to sit among those whom I considered to be great, but I actually dominated the group by serving as the Chairman.

I had a very definite purpose in indulging my imagination through these nightly meetings. My purpose was to rebuild my own character so it would represent a composite of the characters of my imaginary counselors….

These meetings became so realistic that I started to be fearful of their consequences, and discontinued them for several months. The experiences were so uncanny. I was afraid if I continued them I would lose sight of the fact that the meetings were purely experiences of my imagination….

I began to add new members to my cabinet. Now it consists of more than 50, among them Christ, St. Paul, Galileo, Copernicus, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, Homer, Voltaire, Bruno, Spinoza, Drummond, Kant, Schopenhauer, Newton, Confucius, Elbert Hubbard, Brann, Ingersol, Wilson and William James….”

In the technique, Hill called on each of his nine Invisible Counselor and was very specific about what he required from them. For example,

“Mr Darwin, I wish to acquire from you the marvelous patience and ability to study cause and effect without bias or prejudice so exemplified by you in the field of natural science.

Mr Carnegie, I am already indebted to you for my choice of a life work, which has brought me great happiness and peace of mind. I wish to acquire a thorough understanding of the principles of organized effort, which you used so effectively in the building of a great industrial enterprise.

My method of addressing the members of  the imaginary cabinet would vary according to the traits of character which I was most interested in acquiring at the time. I studied the records of their lives with painstaking care. After some months of this nightly procedure, I was astounded by the discovery that these imaginary figures became, apparently, real.”

Please click here to read Chapter 14 on page 134 of the electronic version. What Napoleon Hill refers to as Invisible Counselors are what I call Invisible Mentors. From the cited text from Think and Grow Rich, the nine Invisible Counselors are people who Hill admired, and he imitated them, which suggests that he studied them, which is exactly what I advocate for your Invisible Mentors. I suggest that you become so steeped in your Invisible Mentors that you could ask and answer “What would Invisible Mentor 1 do in this situation?”

Below is an Invisible Mentor slide that I created over seven months ago. After I finished viewing it today for inclusion in this blog post, I realized that I have to update it because my views have expanded, because my knowledge has grown, which is a good thing. How has your knowledge changed in the past six months?

Many people viewing the video “The Most Controversial Personal Growth Technique Ever,” may think that they can use the technique to mentally call on successful people to answer their questions, or generate great ideas without any initial work. Hill spent decades studying successful people so his subconscious mind had a place to start. From my previous posts on generating creative ideas and creative problem solving, the process is preparation, incubation, illumination and verification/implementation.

So what did Napoleon Hill Omit? Hill did not omit anything from what I have read from Think and Grow Rich, the video neglected to mention that when Hill started using the Invisible Counselor Technique he used nine people whose lives and life works had been most impressive to him. To me, that means he had studied these people. This is a major omission from the video. Also, he practiced the technique each night over a long period of years. This also suggests that Hill practiced the technique until he mastered it. Statistics floating around suggest that it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill.

This is an important lesson to always go to the source if you are able to, otherwise you’ll never know what critical piece of information you are missing. What are your thoughts on Invisible Counselors? Which five of Hill’s Invisible Counselors would you choose as Invisible Mentors? Now that you are familiar with Invisible Mentors from reading this blog, would you chair an Invisible Mentor Council Meeting? And if yes, what would you hope to achieve?

Let’s keep the conversation flowing, please let me know your thoughts in the comments section below. Many readers read this blog from other sites, so why don’t you pop over to The Invisible Mentor and subscribe (top on the left side) by email or RSS Feed. I created a Mini Learning Toolkit and you can grab a copy by clicking here.

For an electronic copy of Think and Grow Rich, please click here.

Further Reading

The Sixth Sense: The Door to the Temple of Wisdom – The Thirteenth Step toward Riches